Lululemon’s Chip Wilson meditates on life at the top of his game

Comfort is their business... Chip and Shannon Wilson at their home in Bronte, Sydney.
Photo: Louise Kennerley

by
Claire Stewart

Standing at the edge of Chip and Shannon Wilson’s enormous outdoor deck in the Sydney suburb of Bronte, wrapped in autumn sunshine and the soundtrack of beach life not far below, it’s easy to breathe a little deeper and cast off mundane trivialities.

Appropriate, really, given the squillion-dollar views north over the ocean up to Ben Buckler have been funded by the almost inconceivable success of their global ultra-hip $10 billion yoga-inspired clothing label lululemon athletica.

Chip, a 56-year-old Canadian, was originally in surfwear, but swapped neoprene for yoga pants in 1998, just as the proverbial tide turned on popular surf culture.

His plan now is to chase the sun, chairing the company, with its 200-plus stores across North America and the Asia Pacific and annual revenue in excess of $US1 billion, from Sydney for half of the year and the other half from Vancouver.

“It’s funny, David and I are sitting in Australia seeing
Billabong
, and to some extent
Quiksilver
and then
Rip Curl
not being able to get an offer," Wilson muses. “We saw this 10 years ago. But it’s interesting that now we’re both here watching it happen."

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That David would be
David Lawn
, the New Zealand-born, Melbourne-based, former boss of Rip Curl Global and now chief executive of
lululemon
Australia/New Zealand.

The making of a partnership

Lawn and Wilson met about eight years ago, while Lawn was running the surf brand out of California, and around the time lululemon was negotiating the sale of a 48 per cent stake to private equity.

“Two of the most unlikely people ever to play golf, we just got talking on the golf course. He was looking to make a lifestyle change," Wilson says. One thing led to another and Lawn offered to buy part of the business and grow it in Australia.

“He was an unbelievable guy, it’s one of those dream business relationships that has worked out perfectly."

Shannon believes Chip appreciated Lawn’s foresight that the Rip Curl business, and surfwear more generally, was heading for a lull. “For us, being in retail, it’s a little sad seeing those businesses fall," she says. “But it serves as a reminder and a warning to stay fresh and keep inventing . . . to follow those trends and watch what’s happening."

What’s happening next, they say, is meditation. True to entrepreneurial form the couple last month launched
whil.com, a 60-second tool to bring meditation to the masses, in the same way lululemon stripped the elitism out of yoga practice.

The couple is unabashed talking about how difficult they find dealing with the ever-increasing onslaught of daily life, and their concern that burnout will become widespread and inevitable.

“I don’t think people today know how much information is coming through, and I think they feel a responsibility to respond. And it’s tough," Wilson says. “I wonder if people felt the same in the industrial revolution watching everything that was going slowly, speed up . . . Does the brain get rewired differently?"

It’s deep stuff for a weekday interview, and their positivity and enthusiasm for personal fulfilment makes it easy to see why the North American zest for life so regularly unsettles those harbouring more restrained British sensibilities.

Tall poppy syndrome

Which brings us neatly to what becomes a recurrent theme in the conversation, Tall Poppy Syndrome and the controversy about Chip and the brand that has grown over the past decade.

It ranges from stories about creating the name lululemon because the Japanese can’t pronounce the letter ‘L’ , to allegations the workplace is ultra-competitive and cult-like, with staff given the opportunity to attend the US personal development seminar, Landmark Forum.

“This is the interesting thing," Wilson says when asked about the allegations. “It’s something I find fascinating and part of the reasons we have set up Whil . . . which is a bit about controlling our name brand on the web . . . Someone can write something online and it becomes true."

Wilson is clearly frustrated by some of the public perception.

He says the comments claiming he supports child slave labour, and was trying to subconsciously convert customers into
Ayn Rand
fanatics are the ones to correct.

“I mean, honest to god, I read the articles where people have written stuff about Ayn Rand and I think, ‘What did you read? How could you possibly get that out of it?’ If anything it’s about being a quality person, building a quality product and treating people right."

Courting controversy

The company courted considerable controversy in 2011 when they decided to print carry bags with the famous Atlas Shrugged opening line, “Who is John Galt?"

Shannon said she expected the move to generate conversation, but was shocked at such a negative response.

“It’s about a woman CEO in the 1930s which I think is wonderful," Wilson says. “I looked on the Library of Congress top 100 books, and it’s number one. But I don’t hear about it any more, so I thought, let’s bring it back . . . The reaction was unbelievable."

As for child labour, it was a comment apparently taken out of context 10 years ago when Wilson was defending Nike at a conference not long after it emerged the company had been using child labour.

He says he intended the statement to be about supporting companies who provide an option for children or teenagers who can’t go to school and are on the street for whatever reason, to earn a wage and make sure they can feed themselves.

“That story will never die," Shannon says. “It’s almost like people think it can be like a tool or a weapon to say that about a company.

“And you know what, Nike has worked so hard to partner with their factories. We are in factories Nike is in, and they are phenomenal . . . I mean that is a ridiculous claim for somebody to say that Chip supports child labour. It’s crazy, and it’s hurtful, it really is." Wilson remains candid about his support for Nike. "I personally think it is a great company, I wish I was Nike. I wanted to be CEO of Nike for a long time."

Should we surmise that lululemon has plans to take over Nike then? “Ha, you can write that. And then have a cartoon of me with my tongue hanging this far out my mouth," he says, holding his arm out.

Making of a billion-dollar company

His personal fortune, estimated at over $US4 billion might not stretch to a sale price for Nike, but Wilson’s entrepreneurial nouse is not to be sneezed at, building lululemon into arguably the fastest-growing apparel company in the world, with a nearly $US10 billion market cap.

In March, when its Luon leggings were recalled after girls in changing rooms across North America noticed the highly volatile and technical fabric went see-through as it stretched when bending over, some commentators suggested the mistake pointed to a company expanding too fast, blaming current CEO and former Starbucks boss
Christine Day
.

Wilson, who stepped aside as CEO in January last year, makes no excuses for the mistake, which could cost the company $US67 million over the financial year according to forecasts presented by Day at the March board meeting in Australia.

“The bottom line is that there is no excuse for it. We had everything in place, we should have been able to see it . . . but there was no test for bending over."

But he says if it was an indication of broader changes in the company, which he doubts, the blame rests firmly with him.

“It’s my fault and I hold it on myself for not ensuring that there is a great partnership in every position in the company. It’s like everyone has their area of expertise and they need to pair with someone who complements them. Like a good husband and wife."

As it turns out, lululemon confirmed on Thursday its chief product officer, who has been with the company since 2008, would stand down.

Embracing challenges of wearing multiple hats

Wilson is open about the difficulties inherent in being an executive manager and chairman, which some say caused problems during his joint tenure with Day.

“We had a great CEO who needed to be in charge. And sometimes when I was in it, there was two different thoughts and points of view, and it’s too hard to manage. And I appreciate that.

"The constant process for everybody at lululemon, for growth, is continuing to move themselves out of the job they are in, meaning you have got to hire somebody who is better than you, under you, and then move to the next job. Otherwise you stagnate."

Shannon says the change to full-time chairman means Wilson is finally the “ultimate entrepreneur", because he’s been able to get out of the way of day-to-day stuff, to step back and think about long-term direction, which is to be one of the biggest players in the business of apparel within ten years.

Next week the ultimate entrepreneur and his family will depart Sydney after seven months in the sun, and return to Vancouver, where they have recently funded the C$36 million ($34.1 million) School for Technical Clothing Design at the local Kwantlen Polytechnic University.

“We love Vancouver and feel it is such a centre for that kind of design, between the mountains and the ocean, the rain and the cool and the hot. It’s the perfect testing ground," Shannon says.

“Having said that we’re actively looking to move here, to Sydney, to live for half the year. It is incredible and has everything we want."

She expects, however, their three young children will have a much harder time adjusting back to Vancouver life.

“Here they can live by the beach, popping on their swimmers every morning, going down for a surf. That’s not going to happen in Vancouver, kids . . . This cushy little home school you’re doing here for four hours a day . . . it’s not going to happen," Shannon says, laughing at the prospect of their (temporary) return to reality.